Anyone familiar with Carson Electric Guitars?

[Zandit75]

Dammit!! Alright geniuses, I need some guidance.
I peeled away the tape from the cavities last night, and unfortunately some of the finish on the actual body came away too.






If it was on the back, I wouldn't worry, as it would be under the cavities, and out of sight, but of course those edges came out near perfect, whereas these have lifted and peeled away slightly. I'm not worries about the humbucker cavity, I have a cover for that, but since there is no scratch plate, the slight issues around the single cavities and the neck are going to stand out.

I have some shavings of the finish that I kept after seeing it peel away, and I'm thinking of just using some PA glue to put some back on, what are the thoughts?

[Zandit75]

Another solution I have thought of is some marker pens I have in both black and silver. It may be enough to disguise it.

[Simon Barden]

Those edges are always going to be vulnerable, especially as it looks like the paint isn't sticking that well. This tells me (in hindsight) that you really needed to have masked off to just slightly inside the cavities so that the paint goes over the edges a bit. It would help if those edges were slightly rounded as well as no paint really likes sticking to a sharp edge.

You could try the felt tips, though the ink might spread if you spray some more lacquer on top, due to the solvents in the lacquer. Personally, I'd get some black and white acrylic paint, mix up a number of different greys and stipple it on with a thin brush. The acrylic should be safe to lacquer over. But I would re-mask all the cavities so that the lacquer can run over the edges by a couple of mm to allow it to get a grip on both sides of each edge.

If all else fails, you could also use pickup rings for the single coils. e.g. https://www.allparts.com/pickup-rings If you did, I'd try and match the humbucker and single coil ring colours.

[wokkaboy]

dammit Zandit, as Simon suggested I'd mask the cavities lower so there's no chance of ripping off finish on the top. Have you got any of the granite spray paint left you could hit the white areas with ?

[Zandit75]

Yeah, thanks guys. I still have some more paint left, but I was thinking of using it for the headstock. Having said that, the plan is not set in stone yet. I didn't go any further into the cavities because I thought the copper shielding wouldn't stick to it. And obviously around the neck pocket, I couldn't go over the edge because the neck wouldn't have fitted.
I'll check out those single covers you posted Simon, thanks for that.

[wazkelly]

Hi Zandit, if you haven't thrown away the tape you removed maybe you could pick some of the finish off and use super glue to attach that back on the body.

I know it is a really fiddly PIA type of job but where the offending tape joint lines were will be the bit of finish you need on the axe, not on the masking tape.

If taping up again maybe use a sharp blade or knife to cut the tape and define the edge when removing to prevent a similar thing happening again.

Another idea is to free hand spray lightly near areas that need a bit more coverage and not worry about taping up as you could easily scrape off or sand back any overspray in PUP cavities and neck pocket if required.

[DrNomis_44]

@ Zandit75 As some consolation, I ended up with some of the paint-finish coming away from the Gold Strat body when I peeled off all the green 3M tape from the neck pocket, so you're not the only one who's had that happen, I think that also happened with the HotRod Strat body too, although it is un-noticeable because the scratchplate covers it up around the neck pocket, I decided that I could live with it.

[Simon Barden]

If you do spray into the neck pocket a bit with clear, it won't be the end of the world. I'd imagine the 3M spray is quite thick, but unless the neck is already a really tight fit, a layer of clear won't make much difference. And it's not like the neck is glued in, so you need to keep the wood clean.

[Zandit75]

Pickup installation assistance required!
I still need to shield the cavities and keeping in mind I don't have a pickguard, I'm trying to figure out how to install these damn pickups with all the springs.
I realised that I had just thrown all my discarded parts into a box, and hadn't separated or sorted anything out.
I scavenged through all my bits and pieces, and this is what I found.

I've figured out which screws and springs to use for the single pups, but can someone please advise some tips on installing them

They obviously need to be installed like this


However due to the awkward angle I need to slide the pickups in to get in the small cavity, I can't just place them like this.
If I place the springs in first, the second the pickups get anywhere near them, they magnetize immediately to the pups.
Could I place a small blob of superglue to hold them in place?



Any assistance is appreciated!

[wazkelly]

Hi Zandit, a cheats way is to cut up some high density foam to place under the PUP so that it acts with a bit of a spring action and maybe then you don't need the traditional springs. That is what came with the Custom John Bensons that went in the EX-5 and no springs were used at all.

Alternatively place the PUP where you think it should sit and check out whether there is enough room to squeeze a spring down into the correct location after you have done this next step. That is to screw both screws in a little bit to help create a thread in the timber, then remove one and then see if you can slightly raise that side and squeeze the spring in from the side. If so you can then line the screw up from on top and start screwing it down, then repeat on the other side. Only downside is a lot of the single coil PUP's have threaded base plates for the mounting screws to pass through and that increases the degree of difficulty by a few notches.

For the Humbucker in the Bridge position there will be springs that go under the mounting ring and above the bent metal side brackets and reckon the dirtier black screws on the bottom RHS of top shot will be the ones to use. The smaller screws near the copper tape look like the ones to screw down the Humbucker Mounting ring to the top of the body.

For the snail tape shielding, it can be a quite a fiddly job, especially in tight or cramped spots. Suggest checking to see how high above single coil PUP depths it sits as ideally you don't want to see much if any at all once final setup has been done. Personally I would measure out a length that would circumnavigate the inside of the first PUP cavity and cut that length. Would then peel back 25mm to 35mm of the backing paper and start in the middle and slowly attach it so that in a horizontal plane it sits just below the lip and excess is folded over onto the base/bottom of the cavity, then slowly work you way around until it overlaps back on itself. Maybe you might be lucky in that bottom of cavity could be fully covered but probably not so you have a couple of choices. Either cut out the correct shape in the snail tape and stick that down over the top of the bits folded over in the bottom corner edges or drop a piece if from the top and once smoothed out on the bottom fold the excess up the sides and smooth that down too. Some reckon you need to have solder joins but this method has worked just fine on all of mine with no dramas. Only trap is if the layers get too thick that it prevents free movement of the PUP or may cause things to short out. Obviously there is more room to move in the Humbucker cavity so not as tricky.

Hope this helps.